Fathoms Below
by Blackberry Explosion
Summary: As his underwater kingdom is shaken by unworldly tremors, Nico di Angelo attempts to find answers on land. But there is a catch- to find what he needs to know, he must give up his voice. Will his new friend, Prince Will, be able to help him discover where the tremors are coming from and face his shadowed grief before the sun sets on the last day? Solangelo, Little Mermaid AU.


**Hey guys, it's me. And...three days from now is Percy Jackson and the Prank War's one-year anniversary! Yay! **

**Okay, so obviously I've been doing a horrible job of updating regularly. And now I'm posting a brand-new story that will definitely be multi-chap. Oh gods. I'm so sorry if you're mad at me for not being the best at updating. But my real life comes first (no matter how much I wish it otherwise) and I want to create all the ideas I have. Plus I need to get some Solangelo out there so my brain doesn't break from all the ideas I have for them bouncing around in my head. So let's get started! **

**This is my first AU I've ever published, so I'm very excited. The version of the Little Mermaid it's following along with is the Disney version of the story, not the original Hans Christian Andersen story that ends with Ariel turning into sea foam. I don't want to write that one because I prefer happy endings. The characters and their roles in the story are based off of the movie's characters. For example, Nico's story is loosely based on Ariel, but their motivations and actions are going to be a lot different. So they won't be exactly the same, but here's a rundown of how I'm hoping they work out: Percy;Flounder, Will;Prince Eric, Jason;King Triton, Octavian;Ursula, Hazel;Carlotta, Annabeth;Grimsby, Leo;Scuttle. Plus everyone else will be included or at least mentioned, but without really being related to any characters in the movie. I hope you enjoy this! **

Nico? Nicooooo. Nico?"

Percy swam deeper, his green tail flashing in the wavery light. He cupped his hands around his mouth and called again. "Nicoooooo?"

"Shh!" Cool hands wrapped around his mouth, cutting him off. "Would you be quiet?"

Percy grinned and twirled around to see none other than Nico di Angelo behind him. "Hi, Nico!"

Nico snorted, blowing bubbles in the water around them. "What do you want, Percy?"

"Jason's looking for you. Again. No one knows where you've been all day. Where have you been all day?" Percy blinked innocently.

Nico groaned. "Don't try that on me, you idiot. I was at the old shipwreck."

"Again?" Percy sighed. "What am I going to do with you, Neeks? You know we're not allowed to go near humans. Or their stuff. You know why." he reprimanded his cousin.

Nico crossed his arms in front of his chest rebelliously. "And who's going to stop me? Jason? You?" He sniffed, knowing he'd proven his point. No one in the underwater kingdom of Atlantia could stop Nico di Angelo when he wanted something. Not even King Jason, the newly crowned ruler of all the merfolk in Atlantia could stand in his way.

Percy sighed again, trying to sound old and mature when in reality he was only one year older than his cousin. "You're late for training. Everyone's wondering where you are and you really can't just decide not to show up for training even though you're the prince and everything-"

"Jason put those words in your mouth, didn't he?"

Percy shut up. "No..."

For the first time, Nico cracked a smile. "I wasn't near the old shipwreck, actually."

This piqued Percy's curiosity, even though Jason had sent him to find Nico in the first place and bring him back. He looked sideways at him. "Where were you, then? I don't want to lie to the king."

Nico rolled his eyes. "Please. The king is our cousin. Who you've grown up with. And he's only a year older than you."

"Nine months!" Percy said indignantly.

Nico smirked.

Percy caved.

"Fine!" he groaned, vanquished. "I won't tell Jason."

"Great." Nico grinned. Then he turned and, with a flick of his tail, swam down into a small, mostly unnoticed crevice. Of course. Why would Nico di Angelo ever swim somewhere bright and sunshiny and warm?

Percy followed him down, down, down, soon squinting to keep his eyes on Nico's black tail, tipped gray on the ends. Every so often it flicked left or right, giving him direction. Finally the gray flashed downward, and Percy knew Nico had stopped. He came up beside him and tried to get his bearings.

Black shapes in blue darkness. Percy narrowed his eyes. It was a shipwreck. Not the old one, which was closer to the surface and had been scavenged by adventurous, reckless, irresponsible merpeople. Mostly Nico. Not very many seemed to share Nico's insatiable curiosity about the humans who lived on land about the surface and walked on two legs. Personally, Percy didn't see why Nico cared so much. The humans never bothered the merpeople as long as the merpeople didn't bother the humans. There were always accidents with nets, taking a life or two each year, but that was why there were laws about going to the surface in the first place.

This shipwreck was different from the old one. The colored details painted on the side weren't peeling and faded. They were still bright even in this murky water. The wood of the ship was newer and smoother than the old, rotting structure high above them. Nico looked at him, excitement making his brooding, pale face look almost boyish.

"I just found it. I haven't gone in yet. I wanted you to come and see too."

"Why? Because you're scared?" Percy scoffed.

Nico hit his arm. "_No. _Because I really think there might be some sort of clue about the tremors. The humans might know something. This wreck was obviously recent enough to carry some sort of knowledge about it. And I also wanted to see you get scared."

"I'm not scared!" Percy protested. He wasn't scared. Even though he was far, far out of his comfort zone. His comfort zone was bright and sunshiny and warm.

Nico nodded. "Exactly. So you're totally comfortable with following me, and not screaming when we see sharks."

Percy started. "Sharks?" He noticed Nico's raised eyebrows and immediately schooled his expression from fear to arrogance. "I mean...sharks? Cool! Sharks are...totally not terrifying! I can take on five sharks!"

Nico chuckled and swam down to the bottom of the ship, where a rock had punctured the hull and made for a convenient entrance. Percy followed and pulled himself inside once Nico had done so, trying to stop thinking about sharks.

The human ship was dark, damp, and altogether uninviting. Nico made himself right at home. Nearly giddy with anticipation, he swam over to a table and began examining the human junk with a critical eye. "Hmm…no. No...no."

Percy looked around and nearly rocketed to the surface when he noticed the body. "Nico!" he screeched.

Nico looked up. "Percy?" He followed Percy's line of sight and gasped when he saw her. "Oh…"

The girl was dead. That was rather obvious. She was slumped down against the wall, her lips blue and parted. Her body was bloated, and her dark hair curled around her face in the water.

Percy shuddered. "Can we leave now? Let's go now. Please?"

"You can go if you want." Nico was obviously shaken by the body, but he swallowed down any disgust or fear. He turned away. "I'm staying here. The humans have to know something. The tremors must be affecting them too. There could be something here, so I'm looking."

"It would help the cause if you showed up for training every once in a while." Percy added offhandedly, fingering a...human object. "What's this?"

Nico glanced over. "Leo said it was a snarfblatt. I highly doubt that he knows anything more than I do." he said lightly, studying a long cylinder. "In fact, half the things he told me about when we were twelve were called a dinglehopper."

Percy snorted. Leo was an apprentice in the forges, and claimed to know everything there ever was to know about every machine and tool ever. Percy, meanwhile, didn't believe that humans called their devices "whangdoodles" or "thingamawhats." Leo was crazy.

Nico continued rummaging. "I really think the humans might know something. I wish I could talk to one of them…"

"But the law." Percy said automatically. "But…Bianca…" He immediately regretted mentioning her. Nico went dark. His eyebrows furrowed and he swished around, away from Percy. "Don't talk about her."

Percy winced. Bianca's death was a major reason that merpeople weren't allowed to go near the surface or look at human things. Percy didn't like thinking about it. He knew Nico had initially blamed him for it, although he didn't any longer. It was a tragic accident.

Bianca was still a touchy subject with Nico, as was the subject of his father. Nico's father was Hades, one of the three brothers who had ruled Atlantia until recently. Lately, all three of them had gone missing. Search parties had been sent out, but not one of the three brothers had been found. With a heavy heart, Jason Grace, the oldest son of the three princes in line for the throne, had taken his place.

As a friend and cousin of the king, Percy knew personally that Jason hated being in charge, and wished endlessly for the return of his father and uncles. But the rest of Atlantia accepted Jason, and he had a large group of experienced advisers to guide him. Percy and Nico knew that Jason would be a good king (and they were both secretly glad it was Jason who was oldest and not them.) When both Nico and Percy were eighteen, they would help Jason rule the kingdom and pretty much all three be treated as kings, even though Jason would technically be supreme out of the three of them. But, as for now, Percy was seventeen, Nico was sixteen, Jason was the only king, and all was well.

Except for the tremors.

They'd started a month ago, only days after Jason had ascended the throne. Now they were almost daily occurrences. Tremors that shook the ground and the water above it. For some weaker merpeople, they made it hard to breathe. Every scroll in the library, the city's hub of knowledge, had been scoured, and yet nothing like this was mentioned. Nothing like this had ever happened in all of recorded mermaid history.

But according to Nico, the key word there was _mermaid._ No one in the whole ocean could explain this unnatural occurrence, but Nico thought that maybe the humans on land could know something. Someone on land could understand what was happening to them, and tell them that it wasn't a worry, or it meant impending disaster.

Percy figured that was logical, but he didn't trust that the humans would be automatically friendly. Rumor had it that there were some humans who made a living out of sailing the oceans and hunting merpeople. No one knew what happened to any who were unlucky enough to be taken. Jason made a point of dispelling these rumors as what they were, but then again, no one had a shred of factual evidence about what humans were really like. Were they meant to be friend or foe?

Nico was willing to take his chances. Percy might have been a year ago. But then, a year ago Nico's tail had been green. Bianca had been alive.

Percy stared sadly at Nico's black tail. Things had been different a year ago.

Suddenly, the ground rumbled beneath them. The whole world began shaking, and the rickety ship groaned. Percy and Nico locked eyes. Nico dropped the something-or-other that he'd been holding and made a break for it, Percy right behind him. The ceiling of the ship above them rattled threateningly. Percy swam faster and grabbed Nico's arm. "Out out out c'mon c'mon c'mon." he cried, Nico was shaking but didn't fight his grip (Percy had always been stronger than Nico, although he and Jason were evenly matched. Nico was better at swordfighting.)

They emerged from the ship breathlessly. Just in time, too, as the ship finally collapsed minutes after their escape. The tremors stopped abruptly as the aged structure crashed in the sand.

Nico looked disappointed. "Darn. I was hoping for more evidence."

Percy threw his hands up, exasperated. "Unbelievable. We almost died in there and you wish that there was more evidence?"

Nico whirled on him. "_Yes. _There has to be an explanation somewhere for these tremors, and we have to make them stop!"

Percy was about to launch into the argument, but a sudden chill up his spine stopped him cold.

_Evidence for the tremors is not what he seeks, Son of Poseidon. _

Percy looked behind him. No one was there. The shivery voice didn't come from there, anyhow. It echoed inside his head, sounding ethereal and ghostly. "Who are you? What do you want?" he demanded.

_Your friend seeks payment, revenge. And he is foolish enough to believe that he will find it in the tremors, deep under the earth. He is wrong. _

Nico clenched his fists. All the color had drained out of his face. "Show yourself!" he cried.

_Revenge is not where you think it is, Nico di Angelo. Revenge is above the water. _

_Revenge is with the humans. _

The voice's presence was gone as quickly as it had appeared. Percy let out a slow exhale. "Nico? What was that all about?"

Nico's expression twisted into something dark. "Nothing." he spat. With a flick of his tail, he was gone.

Percy's heart sank. Dejected, he swam to find the only other person who half-understood the enigma that was Nico di Angelo- Jason Grace.

**Okay! So that's the first chapter! My formatting is a little different this time, so I hope you liked it. If you have any questions, please PM me. I don't really reply to reviews very much. Please keep all reviews positive and all criticism constructive. If you're just going to say that Reynico is better than Solangelo, that's fine, but don't mention it in a review. Actually talk about the STORY. **

**Sorry. Just had to get that out. My name is Blackberry Explosion, and I hope you have a great day! :) **


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